The Waddington's V8 Rail Bus, built in 1937 .
Steve emailed over this photo of a pre-war Australian Rail Bus, and agreed to it being shown here. He's involved with a team of RailCorp apprentices who are restoring one of these amazing pieces of transport history, and is currently researching the V8 badges that fit to the side of the bodywork. Does anyone recognise them as being fitted to a contemporary V8 Ford car? if anyone can help source some of these badges, please get in touch and I'll pass on the details.
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The Railbus was built in Sydney by the Waddington Body Works, a firm with experience in building buses and trains. It
used a modified Ford truck chassis, and was powered by a V8 Ford Mercury engine, hence the V8 badges. The radiator
grille also looks like a Ford item to me. The Rail Bus was designed to be used on smaller railway lines feeding into the
Sydney city rail system, where the use of more expensive locomotives could not be justified. Waddington's built a fleet
of these vehicles in 1937 to serve this purpose, giving the Rail Bus a road- rather than rail-inspired appearance. Note how the
side entrance door is high up from the ground, designed to be used at railway platforms in the New South Wales area.
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If anyone can shed any more light on these railbuses, please drop me a line and I'll update this page. Do you remember riding on them? And if you can assist in tracking down some badges for the RailCorp restoration project, again it'd be great to hear from you. In the background is a fine art-deco building, used by Goldsbrough Mort Limited (Wool Store).
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Return to Old Car Photos Page No. 8.
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